2016 Integrity 20 Speakers

“The most effective public affairs lobbyist of the past 20 years” & “100 Makers of the 21st Century”

Shami Chakrabarti is one of the UK’s best known campaigners. She served as Director of Liberty for more than a decade gaining a reputation for her fearless campaigning against anti-terrorist measures and the erosion of civil liberties.

Shami Chakrabarti (UK)

Human rights activist, lawyer and campaigner

Senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and award-winning former National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent

Sarah Chayes, author of Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, is an international authority on corruption and its implications.

It was a sense of historic opportunity that prompted Sarah to renounce a career in journalism after covering the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio, and to remain in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country.

Sarah Chayes (US)

Award-winning author and former reporter for National Public Radio

One of Australia’s most highly regarded philosophers, distinct ethical voices, and influential public intellectuals.

Raimond Gaita is Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne Law School and The Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne and Professor Emeritus of Moral Philosophy at King’s College London. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

The University of Antwerp awarded Gaita the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa “for his exceptional contribution to contemporary moral philosophy and for his singular contribution to the role of the intellectual in today’s academic world”.

Raimond Gaita (Australia)

Author, philosopher and public intellectual

An Australian journalist and correspondent who has worked for Reuters, CNN, the BBC, and most recently Al Jazeera. On 29 December 2013, Egyptian security agents arrested Peter and two other Al Jazeera English journalists, accusing them of news reporting that was “damaging to national security”. He was jailed for 400 days in a crowded Egyptian Prison.

Peter Greste (Australia)

Foreign correspondent

Chris is an award-winning technology journalist. He has enjoyed an extensive career as a working journalist, computer professional, and in earlier days, teacher of computer studies. He is currently senior technology Journalist at The Australian.

James Henry is author of the acclaimed investigative economics book The Blood Bankers, and his articles and citations have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Nation, The Conference Board, The Washington Post, Harpers, Fortune, Jornal do Brasil, The Manila Chronicle, La Nacion, and many others.

James S Henry (US)

Investigative economist and attorney

Before serving his country as President, José was known internationally as a peacemaker. In exile from his country for the best part of three decades, he had been the international voice of the Timorese people while they fought for survival against a brutal regime. In 1996, José and Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their work toward a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor”…more

Jose Ramos-Horta

Former president of Timor-Leste and peacemaker

“one of the 30 most notable investigative reporters in the U.S. since World War I.”

A former ABC News and CBS News 60 Minutes producer, Charles Lewis founded the award-winning, nonprofit Center for Public Integrity and its International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Charles Lewis (US)

Investigative journalist, best-selling author, professor

Twice-voted Australia’s leading public intellectual, regular commentator and author of more than 25 books.

Robert Manne is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at La Trobe University. Manne wrote regular columns on public affairs between 1987 and 2005 for the Melbourne Herald, The Age, The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald and has been a commentator on the ABC for many years. He is a regular writer for The Monthly magazine. Manne has written on a number of issues – the Cold War, the politics of refugees and asylum seekers, Stalinism, Nazism and the Holocaust, Australian indigenous history and the politics of climate change. He is presently researching the ideology of the Islamic State group.

Robert Manne (Australia)

Public intellectual & commentator, author and Emeritus Professor

Winner of the 2015 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent

Sakdiyah Ma’ruf is one of the first Indonesian Muslim female stand-up comics. A passionate advocate for freedom and equality much of Sakdiyah’s comedy challenges Islamic fundamentalism and advocates for women’s rights. One of the very few female stand-up comedians in the country to appear on national TV, she has often been asked to censor her jokes but has refused to be silenced.

Sakdiyah Ma'ruf (Indonesia)

Stand-up comedian

A professor of law whose career has been devoted to human rights, particularly the rights of refugees.

Professor Penelope Mathew is the Dean and Head of School at Griffith Law School (Brisbane and Gold Coast, Australia). Prior to her appointment at Griffith Law School, she held the Freilich Foundation chair at The Australian National University. From 2008-2010, she was a visiting professor and interim Director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she convened the 5th Michigan Colloquium on Challenges in International Refugee Law.

Penelope Mathew

Dean and Head of School, Griffith Law School

An award-winning journalist and human rights activist in Angola, working to expose corruption and abuse of power by the country’s ruling family. Despite repeated arrests and threats, including a 40-day detention without charge during which he was denied food and water for days, Rafael has continued his investigations, most recently detailing human rights abuses within Angola’s diamond companies.

Rafael Marques de Morais (Angola)

Anti-corruption campaigner, investigative journalist

Programs Director for Oxfam Australia, leading an Australian and international team to deliver positive impact and lasting change in communities around the world. Joining Oxfam in Great Britain as a volunteer in 1989, Alex has 25 years of experience in long-term development and humanitarian assistance, including leading programs in Vanuatu, the Philippines, Eastern Europe and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Alex Mathieson

Programs Director and Oxfam Australia

2014 NT Australian of the Year and NAIDOC Artist of the Year, Shellie Morris is one of Australia’s finest singer songwriters.

Her voice and heart-felt music has seen her grace stages from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, the Sydney Opera House, to the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Skirball Centre in New York.

Shellie Morris (Australia)

Singer Songwriter

Human rights activist, lawyer and conflict zone specialist, Anna Neistat has spent many years on the frontline, exposing and documenting human rights abuses in some of the world’s most dangerous and secretive regimes…more

Anna Neistat (Russia)

Dr Tim Soutphommasane is Race Discrimination Commissioner and commenced his five-year appointment on 20 August 2013. Prior to joining the Australian Human Rights Commission, he was a political philosopher and held posts at The University of Sydney and Monash University.

Scott Stephens is Editor of the ABC’s Religion and Ethics website, and specialist commentator on religion and ethics for ABC radio and television. He is also co-host (with Waleed Aly) of The Minefield on Radio National.

Scott Stephens (Australia)

Co-Host of ABC's The Minefield, Editor of Religion and Ethics online

Director of Unmanned Systems Australia and 24-year veteran of the Australian Defence Force Phil Swinsburg is currently the Director of Unmanned Systems Australia, a company focused upon the expansion of the Unmanned Aerial, Ground, Sea and Sub-Surface systems in Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Phil Swinsburg

Retired Lieutenant Colonel

A surgeon, writer, political commentator and human rights activist, Ma Thida spent almost 6 years in prison in the 1990s for her activism Dr Ma Thida is known as a leading intellectual whose writings deal primarily with her country’s political situation. She has published nine books in Burmese and English, including two fictional works and a prison memoir

Ma Thida (Myanmar)

Surgeon, writer, public intellectual and former 'prisoner of conscience'

Dr. David Tuffley is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics and SocioTechnical Studies at Griffith University’s School of ICT. A regular contributor to mainstream media on the social impact of technology, David is a recognized expert in his field. Before academia David worked as an IT Consultant in Australia and the United Kingdom, a role he continues to perform when not educating the next generation of IT professionals.

David Tuffley (Australia)

Lecturer in Applied Ethics and SocioTechnical Studies

Named in the inaugural Knowledge Nation 100, the one hundred rockstars of Australia’s digital revolution. Toby Walsh is one of the leading researchers in the world in Artificial Intelligence. In 2015, he was one of the initial signatories of an Open Letter calling for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons. The letter was also signed by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak.